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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Chaos Space Marines Units and Tactics: The Defiler

The Chaos Defiler is perhaps one of the coolest looking vehicles in the 40k universe and has spawned numerous conversions and kitbashes. Its capabilities on the battlefield are also impressive, but like any other peice of gear it is only as deadly as the hand that wields it.

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Infantry Killer No matter how you build your defiler, the focus of this beast is its ability to kill basic infantry. This unit is not designed to kill monstrous creatures, other walkers or elite infantry (like termies or units with high strength CC capability). The Defiler's AV12 means that mass powerfists/claws and MC's double dice will lead to dead defilers every time, while basic infantry units will have few if any ways to kill it. Weapon Skill 3 and I3 will also put it at a disadvantage against MCs as they will tend to have better stats in those departments as well.

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This means you should be hunting those units of guardmen, fire warriors and even space Marines and various CSM units (krak grenades are little use against a Daenomically possessed walker and single powerfists are not that scary for them either). Just keep in mind that you will not be wiping enemy units from the board in a single turn most of the time, you will often find yourself in CC tarpits, holding an enemy unit for multiple turn either making that unit useless or getting it ready for your other assault units (Daemon Princes, zerks ect.) to get in and finish the job.

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The same goes for the defiler's ranged weaponry. While the autocannon is good for popping transports, this really is a less than optimal shooting weapon for your defiler. It's real strength lies in the battlecannon, which can pop a squad of space marines (or any other 3+ or worse armour) per turn with a good scatter. Given the odds that your enemy will likely be targeting your defiler with anti-tank weapons, you need to make the most out of that battlecannon if you intend to stand and shoot.

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The Weapons of War ... The defiler can be given a number of weapons to choose from, but I find it best to keep it cheap. While a las cannon might seem like a good idea, there are other HS units capable of doing better for the same or less points. The same can be said for the free autocannon (it really isn't what you take a defiler for). I prefer my defilers cheap (150 or nothing at all), so I take either a defiler with a heavy flamer and 1 extra DCC weapon or with just 2 extra DCC weapons. This gives you the ability to offer mutual support in the rear (charging units that assault your rear line) and offensive capability (moving, shooting or fleeting and then assaulting).

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Sit, Walk or Run ... The defiler has fleet, so it can make the choice each turn of moving and shooting each turn, moving and running and then assaulting (to close with infantry) or hiding in cover (BIG cover) and shooting. The way you use these abilities really has a lot to do with what kind of army you are up against.

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Against a gunline type army, you have little choice, but to either try to hide and shoot the battlecannon or run into their lines and assault squishy units. Against 'in-your-face' assaulty armies, it is best to stand and use them to fire and counter assault.

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Strength in Numbers Let's face it, the defiler can be popped pretty easily by most long-range anti-tank, so if you really want to get the most use out of them, they are more survivable in numbers. Most armies out there have plenty of ant-tank and can deal with defiler pretty easily and while DP will slow them down, focused fire will destroy a defiler rather quickly. The fact that it is as big as a house also does not help it in this case. If I field them, it is 2-3 or nothing at all. If you do this however, be aware that you will need units that can smash the enemy transports in the first couple turns in order to make use of the cannons, which can be a little difficult for Chaos to do without its other HS units in play.

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My honest opinion is that the defiler is a cool looking unit, but it suffers from the fact that we have better heavy support options like Havocs and Obliterators that can turn out both ant-infantry and ant-tank rather realiably and we have units in other slots that fill the CC role much better than the defiler. I like many other Chaos players had a brief love affiar with the unit (and I still love to convert them; I have two converted scorpions myself), but the need for reliable lange-range support outweighs the cool looking crab-bot every time. That's my two cents, let me know what you think.

5 comments:

I use my Defiler often, as I like it's versatility. You got the battle cannon for dropping infantry of almost any type, and the DCCW for ripping apart stuff (especially armour) is CC. I also find that opponents often fixate on trying to destroy it at the expense of other stuff which can really hurt them.

Yeah, the defiler is a great distracting tool for the enemy, but I tend to run a DP Vindicator for that purpose. While it cannot put out the longe range large blast template, it also survives that first turn shooting for a few more shots than a defiler has for me, so I tend to run it instead. I almost never get a single defiler into CC with a vehicle though as it tends to get smoked long before it can acheive that task, but then again I fight a lot of folks with lists that include 10+ Dark lances or tons of Missile Launchers ect. It may just be a metagame thing in my neck of the woods.